People from all over the world have reported encounters with mysterious beings. They appear to bring important messages or lend much-needed assistance, then vanish without a trace. Could they be angels or even guardian angels?

Some of the most fascinating and uplifting stories of the unexplained are those that people perceive as being miraculous in nature. Sometimes they take the form of answered prayers or are interpreted as the actions of guardian angels. These remarkable events and encounters lend comfort, strengthen faith, and even save lives. They almost always seem to happen when they are needed most.

Are they literally from heaven, or are they the result of the interaction of our consciousness with a profoundly mysterious universe? However you view them, these real-life experiences are worth our attention.

An Angel's Guiding Hand

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Jackie B. believes that her guardian angel came to her aid on two occasions to help her avoid serious injury. According to her testimony, she actually physically felt and heard this protective force. Both encounters happened when she was a child of kindergarten age.

The first experience took place at a popular sledding hill, where Jackie was enjoying the day with her family. The young girl decided to try sledding down the steepest part of the hill. She closed her eyes and started down.

"I apparently hit someone going down and I was spinning out of control. I was heading for the metal guardrail. I didn't know what to do," says Jackie. "I suddenly felt something push my chest down. I came within less than a half inch of the rail but didn't hit it. I could have lost my nose."

Jackie's second experience occurred during her birthday celebration at school. She had run across the playground to place her crown on a bench. While running back to her friends, three boys tripped her.

The playground was filled with metal objects and wood chips. Jackie went flying, and something hit her just below the eye.

"But I felt something pull me back when I fell," Jackie says. "The teachers said that they saw me sort of fly forward then fly back at the same time. As they hurried me to the nurse's office, I heard an unfamiliar voice keep telling me, 'Don't worry. I'm here. God doesn't want anything to happen to his baby.'"

The Reading Angel

It's remarkable how many stories of angels come out of hospital experiences. It may not be so hard to understand why when we remind ourselves that they are places of sharply focused emotions, prayers, and hope.

Reader DBayLorBaby entered the hospital in 1994 with acute pain from "a fibroid tumor the size of a grapefruit" in her uterus. The surgery was successful but more complicated than expected, and her troubles weren't over.

DBayLorBaby recalls that she was in horrible pain. She had an allergic reaction to the morphine she was given, and the doctors tried to counteract it with other medications. This made a bad experience even worse. She had just had a major surgery, and now she was dealing with the pain of an acute drug reaction.

After receiving more pain medication, she was able to sleep for a few hours. "I awoke in the middle of the night. According to the wall clock, it was 2:45. I heard someone speaking and realized someone was at my bedside," she says. "It was a young woman with short brown hair and wearing a white hospital staff uniform. She was sitting and reading aloud from the Bible. I said to her, 'Am I alright? Why are you here with me?'"

The woman visiting DBayLorBaby stopped reading but did not look up. "She simply said, 'I was sent here to make sure you'd be alright. You are going to be fine. Now you should get some rest and go back to sleep.' She began to read again and I drifted off back to sleep."

The next morning, she explained the experience to her doctor, who checked and said that no staff had visited her overnight. She asked all of the nurses and no one knew of this visitor.

"To this day," she says, "I believe that I was visited by my guardian angel that night. She was sent to comfort me and assure me that I would be okay. Coincidentally, the time on the clock that night, 2:45 a.m., is the exact time recorded on my birth certificate that I was born!"

Rescued From Hopelessness

Perhaps more painful than any injury or illness is the feeling of utter hopelessness—the despair of the soul that leads one to thoughts of suicide.

Dean S. experienced this pain as he was going through a divorce at the age of 26. The thought of being apart from his two young daughters was almost more than he could bear. But on one night of stormy darkness, Dean was given renewed hope.

At the time, he was working as a derrickman on a drill rig. That night, he was having serious thoughts of taking his life as he looked down from the 128-foot derrick.

"My family and I have strong beliefs in Jesus, but it was hard not to contemplate suicide," recalls Dean. "In the worst thunderstorm I'd ever seen, I climbed the derrick to take my position to pull pipe out of the hole we were drilling."

His co-workers urged him not to climb the derrick, saying they'd rather have downtime than risk someone's life. Dean ignored this and began to climb.

"Lightning flashed all around me, thunder boomed. I cried to God to take me. If I couldn't have my family, I didn't want to live ... but I couldn't take my own life in suicide. God spared me. I don't know how I survived that night, but I did.

"A couple of weeks later, I bought a small Bible and traveled to the Peace River Hills, where my family has lived for so long. I sat down on top of one of the green hills and started to read. I had such a warm feeling enter into me as the sun parted through the clouds and shone on me. It was raining all around me, but I was dry and warm in my small spot on top of that hill."

Dean says that these moments changed his life for the better. He met his new wife and fell in love. They started a family together that includes his two daughters. He says, "Thank you, Lord Jesus and the angels you sent that day to touch my soul!"

Life Information From an Angel

Some people believe that before we are born, when our consciousness or spirit resides in that unknown place, we are given information about the life we are about to be born into. Some say we even choose our life.

Not many people can claim that they remember this pre-birth existence, but Gary says he does. In fact, even in his middle-aged years, Gary says he can recall some details of a conversation he had with an angel before he was born.

"I was bodiless, but aware that I was in an area that was darkened, and I was alone except for the entity that was speaking to me," he says. "I was at the bottom of a stairway-type structure and was looking up the stairs, but not seeing the one speaking to me. I was very warm and comfortable, but aware and feeling trepidation of what I was about to embark on.

"This entity was speaking to me and giving me a brief description of how my life would be. I asked for more information, but it was refused. I was basically told that my life would not be a hard life, but would lack any luxuries and that I would experience great difficulties at a relatively early age. It seems there were a few other small details, but I no longer can remember it quite as clearly as I once did when I was younger.

"It appears the information was correct as I'm now disabled and in poor health."

The Angel Nurse

In 1998, Luke was diagnosed with bone cancer at the tender age of eight. As sometimes happens, he came down with an infection, which meant he had to go to the hospital. He was there for about two weeks, and that's when something remarkable happened.

One evening, Luke's mother was sitting at his bedside quietly praying as he slept. A nurse came into the room to check Luke's temperature, but his mother noted something rather peculiar about her.

The nurse was wearing an old-fashioned uniform of the type that would have been common 30 years earlier, in the 1960s. The nurse noticed that Luke's mother had a Bible by the side of his bed. She said that she was a Christian, too, and said she would pray for Luke's healing.

Luke's family had never seen this odd nurse before, and they never saw her again in Luke's remaining time at the hospital.

"I came out of the hospital fully healed of my infection," says Luke, who was 19 when he told his story. Remarkably, he is now completely free of cancer.

"My mom believes this nurse could have been a guardian angel coming down to give my mom some hope," Luke says. "If she wasn't an angel, why would she be wearing 1960s old-fashioned nurse clothing?"

Beautiful, Strange UFO ... or Angel

Some researchers think there might be a connection between UFOs and angel sightings. They say the angels and heavenly figures encountered in the Bible might actually have been extraterrestrials.

After his experience in the 1980s with "the most beautiful thing" he ever saw, Lewis L. might agree with that assessment.

It was a Saturday morning in Mariposa, California, and Lewis had to work that day. The air was fresh from a cool rain the night before, and the morning sky was bright with a few scattered clouds.

"I was heading out to my car in the back parking lot of the apartment complex where I lived when I noticed someone kneeling next to my car," Lewis says. "This person saw me and quickly stood up holding a crowbar."

The young man was quite obviously startled by Lewis's interruption, and although Lewis sensed the boy was up to no good, it hadn't yet hit him what he was doing. Then Lewis looked through the passenger window of his car and saw that the steering wheel column had been stripped of its cover. He realized that the young man was trying to steal his car.

"I asked him what the hell he was doing," Lewis recalls. "He gave me a lame story about his friend's car being stolen last night and that my car looked like his friend's and so on. I didn't want to hear it. I told him I was going to call the police, which I did on my cell phone."

Lewis dialed 911 and gave the dispatcher the address. He told the would-be thief that the police were on their way and warned him not to leave. The boy said he would wait for the police, but Lewis could tell he was just waiting for the right moment to make a run for it.

"If he did, I wasn't going to try to stop him because his adrenaline was pumping and he had that crowbar," Lewis says.

As Lewis was grilling the young man, trying to detain him, he began to notice three rather large clouds in a single-file formation that were almost overhead.

"Then I saw it," he says. "A shiny object exiting from the first cloud and entering the next and then coming out of that one. It was shiny, like brightly polished chrome, and moving at a good speed. I couldn't make out the shape."

By this time, Lewis was so distracted by the UFO that the punk saw his chance and took off. That's when the object entered the last cloud. From there it was nothing but open sky. "When it emerged, my life changed," Lewis says.

"There against the richness of the blue sky was a silvery shape that seemed to have arms and legs! It was so beautiful to look at. At the same time, it had the appearance of metal. It looked like some kind of ship with a strange design. The best way I can describe it is it looked like silverware in the design of the stickman children draw. It was huge, moving fast and made no noise.

"As it sailed overhead, some of the limbs would move up and down, giving the impression of being alive - a living entity! It made a couple of rolls, reflecting the sun in every direction - just beautiful ... oh my god, beautiful!

"As it started to fade away from my view, I found myself short of breath and with tears running down my cheeks. It had that much of an effect on me. I began thinking maybe that's what an angel looks like. Maybe not!"

Angel Money

There are many stories of people receiving much-needed money from mysterious, unknown sources. Ellie has such a story that she recalls from the summer of January 1994, when she was living in Melbourne, Australia.

It was late afternoon and Ellie was outside gathering the family laundry from the clothesline. There was a sudden, small willy-willy—an Australian term for a swirling wind funnel of dust and leaves.

"As it raced past me, I saw something blue whirling in the middle of the dust and leaves and managed to grab hold of it," she says. "I was surprised and very pleased to see it was a $10 note!"

A few days later, Ellie was at the back of the yard checking on her garden tomatoes when she spotted something lying in the grass. She was astonished to find it was a $20 note. Not long afterward, in another part of the garden, she found a $5 note and yet another $20 note nestled among the leaves of the daylilies.

"By this time I'd told my family of the 'angel money'," she tells us. "None of them had put money there, not with the possibility of it blowing away in the often high winds of summer. All was quiet for a few days, then one of my sons came in with an ear-to-ear grin and a $20 note that he had just found on top of the compost heap!"

Most of us would say this was not "angel money" at all, but money that someone had lost that had simply blown into Ellie's yard. But Ellie's not quite convinced of that explanation. That's because a week or so later, she had another amazing find—this time in her house.

"I was cleaning out under the bed and pulled out a pair of slippers, and there nestling in the toe of one, like a little grace note, was a 50-cent coin!"

Pushed to Safety by an Angel

Back in 1980, Deb was a single mother with two infants living in San Bernardino County, California. She occasionally needed reliable babysitters.

Fortunately, her parents lived only about 30 miles away in Alta Loma. Deb would usually drop off the children at her parents' house, go do what she needed to do, then pick them up in the evening.

One night, Deb had retrieved her babies from her parents' place and was heading home. It was relatively late, about 11:30 p.m. Deb was driving her "old clunker." Among the car's many deficiencies, the gas gauge was broken, requiring her to guess when the old thing needed fuel. Occasionally, her guessing was off.

"Halfway home, the car started to putter," Deb remembers, "and I realized I was on empty. I pulled off the first off ramp I could, and it just happened to be one that was slightly uphill. Almost at the top of the exit, my car died and there was absolutely nothing around except empty fields and distant lights at a truck stop about a quarter of a mile down the road.

With no cars in sight, Deb didn't know what to do. The kids were asleep and walking miles while carrying two kids in the middle of the night was not a good option. This was before cell phones, so she could not call for help.

"I put my head on the steering wheel while saying a short and panicky prayer," she says. "I hadn't even finished when I heard a few taps on my window."

When she looked up, she saw a clean-cut young man standing there, who Deb estimated to be about 21 years old. He motioned for her to roll down her window. "I remember I was surprised," Deb says, "but I wasn't even the slightest bit afraid, even though I normally would have been terrified."

The young man was dressed well and had a faint smell of soap. He didn't ask if she needed help. Instead, he told her to put the car in neutral and he would help her over that last, small hill toward a place where she could get gas.

"I thanked him and followed his instructions. The car started moving. I steered it toward the lights of the truck stop and turned around to yell 'thank you' again to him," Deb says.

"He was so nice! My car kept moving, but the young man was nowhere in sight. I mean, this area was completely remote. There was absolutely nowhere he could have gone that quickly, even if there was somewhere to go. I don't even know where he came from to begin with."

Deb's car continued to roll down the hill until it reached the truck stop. She was able to get the gas she needed, and the kids remained sound asleep.

"I've always trusted in God to take care of us, but in relating that story many times to my children, who are now 30 and 32, they know for a fact that angels do exist and are sent to us if we just believe.

"I always thought it was so amazing that we were sent someone who I would trust instinctively without question. Since that incident, I've come to believe that we probably encounter angels all the time, and take for granted who they really are. I think they come in all shapes and sizes, young and old ... and sometimes when we least expect them."

The Accident Warnings

Is our future predestined, and is this how psychics and prophets can see the future? Or is the future only a set of possibilities, a path that can be altered by our actions?

A reader with the username Hfen writes about how she received two separate and remarkable warnings about a possible incident in the future. They may have saved her life.

One night, at about four in the morning, Hfen's sister called her. Her voice was trembling and she was nearly crying. Since her sister lived across the country and it was so early, Hfen was obviously worried.

"She told me she had a vision of me being in a car accident. She didn't say whether or not I was killed in it, but the sound of her voice made me think she did believe this but was afraid to tell me," Hfen writes. "She told me to pray and she said she would pray for me. She told me to be careful, to take another route to work -- anything I could do. I told her I believed her and would call our mother and ask her to pray with us."

When Hfen left for work, she was "terrified but strengthened in the spirit." She worked at a hospital and had patients to attend to. As she was leaving a room, she was called over by a gentleman in a wheelchair.

"I went to him expecting that he had a complaint against the hospital. He told me God had given him a message that I would be in a car accident! He said someone not paying attention would hit me. I was so shocked I almost fainted. He said he would pray for me and that God loved me.

"I felt weak in the knees as I left the hospital. I drove like a little old lady as I observed every intersection, stop sign, and stop light. When I got home, I called my mom and sister and told them I was fine."

The Flight Papers

A saved relationship can be just as important as a saved life. A reader calling herself Smigenk relates how a little "miracle" might have rescued her troubled marriage.

At the time, she was making every effort to mend her rocky relationship with her husband. She had planned a long, romantic weekend in Bermuda. When things started to go wrong, it seemed her plans were ruined ... until "fate" intervened.

Smigenk's husband was reluctant to go on the trip. When they arrived in Philadelphia, they were notified that weather was causing planes to back up, so they were stuck in a holding pattern for some time.

By the time they landed, their flight to Bermuda was boarding. As many passengers have experienced, it was a mad dash to the next gate. They were devastated to find that the gate door was just closing when they arrived. The attendant told them that they could get to Bermuda, but it would require two more connecting flights and an additional 10 hours.

"My husband said, 'That's it. I'm not putting up with this anymore,' and started to walk out of the area and—I just knew—out of the marriage. I was truly devastated," recalls Smigenk.

"As my husband was walking away, the attendant saw on the counter (and I swear it had not been there when we checked in) a packet. She was obviously upset that it was still there. It turned out to be the landing papers packet that the pilot must have on board to land in a different country.

"She quickly called the plane to return. The plane had been on the runway ready to start powering up the engines. It returned to the gate for the papers and they allowed us (and others) to get on."

Smignek says that the time with her husband in Bermuda was wonderful. They were able to work out the problems they were having and stay together. Though they have been through tough times since then, they always remember that moment at the airport.

"I felt as if my world had collapsed and was given a miracle that helped us keep a marriage and a family together."